"Are you sure you brought multiple quills? I don't want you borrowing quills from others like last year. If one is broken, send me a letter and I'll send you a new one."

"Yes, mum, I got at least seven", Scorpius sighed as we walked along Platform nine an three-quarters. I took a deep breath as we halted near the Hogwarts Express.

"And enough jumpers? It gets really cold in the castle at night."

"Yes, mum, I also got enough jumpers. You asked that already. It's my third year, I know how cold it gets."

"He'll be fine, Ellie", Draco laughed, as little Tracey was clinging onto his hand. It would be her first year at Hogwarts, but I knew she had everything she needed in her trunk as I packed it for her. She looked around nervously, not knowing many other kids yet.

"Sorry", I smiled as I pulled my boy into my arms. "I'm just going to miss you so much. I want you to have fun at Hogwarts."

"I'm sure I will", he said, quickly showing me the Skiving Snackbox inside his coat which we had gotten when visiting Fred and George's shop last week.

"Scorpius, I told you those were for at home only!" I said disapprovingly.

"Daddy told me I could bring them!" he shrugged. I looked back at Draco who was grinning at me amusingly. You're a pain in the arse, I mouthed at him, which only made his grin wider.

"Just don't get into trouble, not like last year, okay? You're doing Slughorn's head in." I looked back at Scorpius, pulling his coat straight.

"I won't, I won't, can I go find Albus now?" he sighed.

"Yes, but I'm going to need one more hug. I won't be seeing you until Christmas", I said. He nodded and quickly gave me a hug before running towards the Hogwarts Express.

"Now it's your turn, little one", I turned to Tracey, who was still clinging onto Draco's hand. Scorpius was very much like Draco back in the day, just as blond, but far less mean. He did get into trouble way more often than I would have liked as two of his friends were the two twin boys of Fred Weasley and his wife. They were good kids, though.

Tracey was very much like me. She was more reserved and liked things like drawing, painting and reading, but she was a feisty one. She almost always won when arguing with Scorpius, even though she was two years older. She had also inherited Draco's blonde hair, but it wasn't as light. A little bit of my dark locks had coloured it a deeper blonde. She even looked a little bit like her, like Tracey Davies.

"D'you reckon I'll get into Slytherin too?" she asked, walking up to me.

"I'm not quite sure to be honest", I smiled. "You're definitely cunning, but you're also incredibly smart. You could be a Ravenclaw, or maybe a Gryffindor, because you're feisty, but you're kind like a Hufflepuff. It doesn't matter what house you get sorted into, Trace."

Draco and I had decided to raise our kids without any prejudice. No blood status prejudice, no house prejudice and no good or bad prejudice. We taught them very little about their ancestors, as they were no people they should look up to. Narcissa and Lucius came over often and they had struggled with that idea for quite a while, but they came around eventually. Even Draco came as far as saying that Gryffindor was a respectable house.

"Hugo and Roxanne are convinced that they'll be sorted into Gryffindor", Tracey said. That wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, as they were respectively Hermione and Ron's and George and Angelina's children. They'd definitely be Gryffindors.

"Even if you don't get sorted into Gryffindor with them, you can still be friends with them. Look at Scorpius and the twins." Tracey nodded.

"Who do I sit with in the train then?" she asked, her eyes wide. Unfortunately, my anxiety had also transferred onto her.

"Whoever you want to sit with. You can sit with Hugo or Roxanne. Florence will probably be here too already." I looked up to see if I could spot Daphne and Felix with their daughter Florence. They had lived in France for a while, but Daphne really wanted her daughter to go to Hogwarts and Felix would follow her to the other side of the globe. They came back three years ago and we picked up where we had left off so many years ago.

I lost touch with Daphne for a short while after the Battle of Hogwarts. It was weird to hang out with her without Tracey there, but over the years it got better. By the time she returned to England, we had already been sending letters back and forth for months and now she came over for brunch every Sunday. We had decided last year that we'd set up Scorpius and Florence together when they were older. Scorpius was two years older, but that didn't matter much.

I didn't cry anymore after Tracey's death. Not because I felt like it made me weak, like I used to think, but because nothing seemed like a valid reason anymore. Nothing compared to the pain I felt when Tracey died, so there was no reason good enough to cry anymore.

"Okay, I'll send you a letter with the house I get into", Tracey said before hugging me tightly. I didn't need to ask for a hug with her like I had to with Scorpius. She was more attached to us, especially to Draco. But she'd be fine regardless, she just needed to find her place.

"Bye dad", she said and went back to Draco. He lifted her up and hugged her tightly before putting her back onto the ground.

"Keep an eye on your brother, okay? And study hard and don't go to bed too late and do your homework", he said, handing her the cage of her new owl, a grey fluffy one, just like Monty.

"And don't forget to have fun", I added with a laugh.

"Yeah, that too", Draco grinned. He gave Tracey a kiss on her head before she walked towards the train, ready for her first year at Hogwarts.

"This is scary", I whispered as I grabbed Draco's hand, watching her board the train. She turned around one last time and waved at us. I put on a smile, even though it hurt me to see her go, and waved back.

"They grow up so fast, don't they?" I heard. I looked to the side to see Hermione, the current Minister for Magic. Our kids were the same age, so we had slowly become friends over the years. Not like Benjamin and Daphne, who I now saw every week, but we went out for tea at once a month. Ron and Draco would never truly get along, so I was afraid it'd never escalate into something other than going out for tea, but that was fine by me.

"You can say that again", I chuckled nervously. "It feels like yesterday when we stepped off that train for the last time."

So much had happened since the Battle of Hogwarts, nineteen years of events, but still that was the day in my life that had left the biggest impression. We both went back to Hogwarts to sit our N.E.W.T's. It wasn't obligated, but I wanted to go back. I didn't want the Battle of Hogwarts to be my last memory at that school that meant so much to me.

After that, I went into training with the oldest Weasley. I had decided that now there weren't any boundaries anymore, I was going to pursue my dream of becoming a curse-breaker. Through him, I had gotten in touch with the twins again as well, which is the reason why my kids were now friends with their kids.

Draco also pursued his dream, as he started educating himself even further into Alchemy. He now regularly did jobs for the Ministry, but it also allowed him to be at home a lot. I tried to balance my work and family life as much as possible, but when it happened that I had to go away for a few days, Draco just took that time off to watch the kids. He was an incredible dad, far better than I had even dreamed. I felt like all the empathy he had suppressed in his years as a teenager had now found his way out through the love for his children.

"We should go out for tea again sometime soon. Owl me when you're free", I smiled at Hermione. She nodded excitedly before returning to Ron and Harry.

"Do you know what that means, all this time for ourselves?" Draco asked, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"What does that mean, Mr Malfoy?" I smiled.

"It means, Mrs Selwyn, that I can take you to Prague now. I promised that on our honeymoon in Paris, didn't I?"

I kissed him slowly before putting my head on his shoulder as we watched the Hogwarts Express roll out of the station. I was wrong when I thought that I wasn't destined to feel the love of a real family. Back then, I just hadn't found mine yet.

Now I had, and finally, for the first time in my life, I was truly and unconditionally happy. It would have been better if Tracey had the cool aunt she was named after here with us and sometimes I wished that my kids had more than one loving grandparent, but life wasn't meant to be perfect.

It wasn't all good or all bad and it wasn't supposed to be like that. It was mainly good, and that was perfectly fine for me.

I wasn't all fire and Draco wasn't all ice. We were both a bit of both and much more alike than we originally thought.

The End.